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Rigondeaux says he’ll follow Donaire up in weight to continue chasing him

By Dan Ambrose: WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (10-0, 8 KO’s) plans on keeping the pressure on IBF/WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (29-1, 18 KO’s) to try and goad him into a fight. Hearing the news that Donaire may soon move up in weight to try his hand at fighting as a featherweight, Rigondeaux says he’ll follow right after Donaire after he captures all the titles at super bantamweight.

Rigondeaux said to ESPN “The Filipino phoney will be paid a king’s ransom to fight me, but he’s scared enough to move up to 126 just to avoid fighting me. The problem he faces is I will also move up to featherweight once I’ve cleaned out the super bantamweight division.”

Rigondeaux is still in negotiations with Top Rank for a two-year contract extension. According to Dan Rafael at ESPN, Golden Boy has offered Rigondeaux a better deal financially than Top Rank, but what Top Rank has is Donaire, and if he signs with Golden Boy then the chances of him facing Donaire will pretty much disappear entirely, not that the chances are good even with Top Rank. He’s been with Top Rank and still not gotten the fight with Donaire, because Donaire doesn’t see it as an appealing for some reason. He feels Rigondeaux doesn’t have enough experience at the pro level and isn’t a big enough name to bother fighting him. Of course, then you see Donaire face little known IBf super bantamweight champion Jeffrey Mathebula earlier this month and it makes you wonder.

If Rigondeaux does resign with Too Rank, he’ll be fighting one of their prospects Robert Marroquin (22-1, 15 KO’s) on September 15th on the undercard of the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs Sergio Martinez fight at the Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Top Rank is really high on Marroquin and sees him as a fighter that could make a name for himself in the near future. However, there is huge difference between Rigondeaux and Marroquin in terms of talent, and we’ll likely see another slaughter by Rigondeaux. Obviously Top Rank is hoping Marroquin can fight well and make a name for himself, but this could work badly for them if Rigondeaux batters him.